1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to programming development environments performed by computers, and in particular, to a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for remotely debugging internet applications.
2. Description of Related Art
With the fast growing popularity of the Internet and Intranets, especially Web-based networks, there is also a fast growing demand for Internet and Intranet access to databases. Web-based networks operate using the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). HTTP is the protocol used by Web clients and Web servers to communicate between themselves using these hyperlinks. HTML is the language used by Web servers to create and connect together documents that contain these hyperlinks. This protocol and language results in the communication and display of graphical information that incorporates hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are network addresses that are embedded in a word, phrase, icon or picture that are activated when the user selects a highlighted item displayed in the graphical information.
The Internet has considerable potential to provide access to powerfill and complex applications implemented at the Web server to a broad scope of remote clients. This implementation has important benefits such as reducing computer memory and processing requirements at the remote client, and increasing the security of the application by retaining selected portions of the application in a secure location in the Web server. However, one disadvantage of implementing the application remotely from the end user is that the end user is unable to debug or troubleshoot the application when errors or other problems are encountered. This problem can be ameliorated by providing the user with access to the application's source or object code, but this solution would compromise application security. Further, this solution would be communication intensive, and communication bandwidth and latency is already a problem, even for simple Internet applications. What is needed is a method of remotely debugging and troubleshooting internet applications without compromising the security of the application and without placing unnecessary demands on the communication link between the end user and the web server. The present invention satisfies that need.